Utterback, Rams bounce back in must-win game

QUAKERTOWN – It’s a good thing Devon Utterback and her teammates have short memories when it comes to the softball field.

The senior pitcher shrugged off a disastrous early afternoon outing on Thursday and came back with a masterful complete-game, four-hit shutout victory to keep West Chester alive in the PSAC Tournament on Thursday at Veterans Park in Quakertown. The Golden Rams employed consecutive suicide squeeze plays to blank 20th-ranked Shippensburg, 2-0, in a loser’s bracket contest just a couple hours after suffering a lopsided 11-3 setback to Kutztown in a game halted by the eight-run mercy rule after six innings.

“I am just proud of them the way they bounced back after that first game,” said head coach Diane Lokey. “It shows a lot about their character.”

At 34-19 overall, this WCU team has now equaled the program record for wins in a single season. The Rams, currently ranked fourth in the NCAA Atlantic Region, have won eight of the last 10 but face another must-win contest today when they tangle with California (Pa.) at 1 p.m.

“We’ve been on a huge momentum streak so this gives us a lot of momentum going into (today),” said Utterback, who did not walk a single batter and notched the shutout even though the Red Raiders (31-11 overall) put runners in scoring position in four of seven innings.

“We are feeling really good right now and we know we have become a team that can win games like this. We are going to keep fighting until the end.”

Neither team managed a run until West Chester manufactured the game-winner and an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning. In all, WCU bunted four times and registered four sacrifices in the final inning of what was a quintessential pitcher’s duel.

Catcher Erin Quense led off with a single, Ali Vavala followed with a bunt single and moved to second when Shippensburg failed to cover the base. That set the stage for two perfectly executed squeeze bunts by juniors Megan Kelly and Kelly Anderson. The first scored Quense and the second knocked in Vavala, and both came on very close plays at the plate.

“We had runners in scoring position before but hit it hard right at (defenders), and it wasn’t working,” Lokey explained. “So I figured we had to try something else.

“We got (the bunts) down. I don’t normally like to bunt to give away outs but we had to in this kind of game.”

Utterback then sent the Raiders down in order in the bottom of the seventh, getting a double play to end the game and erase a runner that reached base on an error. She becomes just the second West Chester player in history to win 20 games in a season.

“We were pretty confident we were going to come back strong,” Utterback said. “I was ready to go and was actually pretty calm.”

That was amazing considering the way Kutztown pounded her in the opener. The Golden Bears (27-21) wound up scoring all 11 runs via the long ball, and WCU was down 7-0 before batting in the second inning.

“I was hitting my spots but they were hitting me hard,” Utterback explained. “But as bad as it was, I just had to wipe it away and get ready for Ship. Our team is very confident lately so we were able to forget about it.”

Utterback’s nightmarish two-inning game one appearance included six hits, but four were home runs, including three-run blasts from KU’s Colleen Smith and Katie Lynch. It was unlike any of Utterback’s outings this season. The senior surrendered just five round trippers in 693 at-bats heading in, but was tagged for four in 16 at-bats on Thursday.

Trailing 8-0, WCU refused to roll over, however. The Rams scored an unearned run in the third to break the shutout and then added two more in the next inning on RBI singles from Quense and Laura Altenburger. The rally could have been much more impactful with two runners in scoring position and just one out, but West Chester went down meekly with back-to-back strikeouts.

The Bears then wrapped it up in the sixth with yet another three-run homer, this time from Nicole Henninger (3-for-4, 4 RBIs) off reliever Kate Skokowski. The Rams got just one hit in 11 at-bats for its top four hitters, and just four total against two Kutztown pitchers.

It could have been a demoralizing setback, but West Chester regrouped quickly between games and then went out and beat the region’s No. 2 team under must-win circumstances.

“It’s like the saying in baseball, you have to have a short memory – especially the pitchers,” Lokey said.

“In tournaments like this, every game is new,” Kelly added. “We were goofing around, staying calm before the second game.”